The windows through which we see wonderful things

Monthly Archives: June 2012

Here’s one there’s a really good chance you’ve read (in opposition to, say, The Night Land): War of the Worlds. It’s H. G. Wells time again here in the WW, and now we’re dealing with horrible aliens from outer space. Neat!

Yes, Pontifus recently wrote about Bastion. I finally got around to finishing the game myself because I wanted to read what he wrote. And his piece is very good, but probably in a different direction. I’m going to take the (doubtlessly more obvious) route of talking about how Bastion is about fantasy. And if you haven’t played yet, the piece will be spoiler-free until the end, where I will insert large, easy-to-see warning tags, so you can read up to then and stop, if you’d like.

I can say really wholeheartedly that you need to try Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP. But I don’t really want to spend time recommending it to you. It’s basically a revamped point-and-click adventure game, with a few neat mechanics thrown in. The combat, when it appears, takes the form of a timing puzzle, really, with a button for sword and another for shield. The magic is point-and-click, taking the place of the traditional “does this item interact with anything in this room” mad-clicking. But I’m interested in what it does with fantasy. You know. Duh.

Lankhmar, jewel of Nehwon, city of a thousand curiosities. Have you read the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser? The easier question is, have you ever read a fantasy novel influenced by them? If you’ve read a fantasy novel written after the 1930s, the answer is yes.